A Cowboy's Wildfire
by Jester-of-the-Plague
Summary: After a long frustrating day at school and battling with her own insecurities Alisa/Arisa takes a walk to the local Sunkus store. Only to end up being lassoed by an American Cowboy, will he manage to help her wrangle her own insecurities? Or will the wild horse called love knock them both down? Alisa/Arisa/OC Fanfiction
1. Chapter 1

_**Notes from me: Hello everyone I'd like to first thank Fifithebulldog and CrabbyunderaRock for proofreading this story first as I'm terrible at noticing my errors! They both were a great help with their input! And like to thank everyone on r/GirlsundPanzer for their support in wanting this story! That's about it from me, I hope you all enjoy chapter 1 of 'A Cowboy's Wildfire'!**_

_**A Cowboy's Wildfire**_

_**Chapter 1: Ember in the Night**_

_**Note this story takes place after der Film**_

"_**I can't believe I lost again!"**_

A shrilled voice complained into the night sky, to no one in particular. As expected, no one answered; the owner of the voice huffed in anger as she stuffed her hands into her olive drab bomber jacket. Not that it was a cold night, she just felt incredibly frustrated.

"_Stupid scissors…"_ That's right, the icing on the cake for this terrible night was scissors. How the hell did they lose to rocks? Sure, beating paper made perfect sense, but there was no way in hell a rock could break scissors. Unless you managed to hold down the scissors and just keep smashing them with a large rock, but more than likely you'd break the rock first!

"_You always pick scissors, Alisa!" _the girl said in a mocking tone, mimicking one of the girls on her team; they had all picked rock. _"And those stupid taunting grins!"_ Ripping her hands out of her bomber jacket she grabbed at her short brown hair, peculiarly her twin ponytails. With one in each hand she gave them a hard tug in anger, a faint growl emitting from her throat.

After a few painful moments and pointless growling, she released her ponytails and let her hands fall to her sides. She stared hard at the ground in defeat; it wasn't just losing rock, paper, scissors that had her so down. Nor was it the lonely walk to the closest convenience store; no, all those small issues were just the topping on her day.

It had all started with waking up late that morning, not even having time to grab a bite to eat. Rushing out of the dorms to school, forgetting her notebooks for class, even managing to jam her locker door. If that was the worst that could happen, maybe she could get over whatever was troubling her.

But that wasn't what was truly tormenting her. She had been rejected yet again. First, Takashi had rejected her—well it wasn't really rejection, more like she never found the nerve to tell him how she felt. Only to find out from spying—well, spying was wrong, more like rumors—that Takashi was into one of Alisa's classmates, which quite frankly pissed her off. What did that bimbo have that she didn't?!

This thought caused Alisa to lift her eyes from the ground. She scanned the area briefly and spotted a large window. It was the local bakery display window. She walked quickly over to it and looked inside. The shop was dark; the bakery was closed for the day, not that she wanted anything to eat from there anyway.

No, she was more interested in the window itself, as she could see her reflection in the glass. She wore her normal tankery bomber-style jacket, with a large white star patch on the left bicep area. It was a very comfortable jacket; it hid her… "assets." Unless of course, Alisa was Kay…

"_Which I'm not"_ Alisa admitted with a hint of jealousy. She brought her hands to her small chest. She could barely feel herself through the thick fabric of the jacket, which brought another frustrated growl. Though in reality she wasn't angry at her tank commander so much as envious…

She sniffled a few times. Tears building in her eyes. Maybe she wasn't the biggest in the chest department. But she had to have something other girls didn't. She rubbed her eyes a few times she looked at her reflection again. This time, her gaze was on her lower half; she was still wearing her red skirt. It was the normal attire for Saunders, minus the jacket, as that was from Tankery.

The red fabric stopped a little short of Alisa's mid-thigh, showing off her slender legs, which were dotted with little spots. Freckles. She knew almost no girl in all of Saunders had freckles quite like hers. Though most guys found freckles childish-looking….

"_Freckles with chicken legs…"_ Alisa sighed. She was trying to find something attractive about herself, but she only seemed to fail at every attempt. Even if she didn't want to compare herself to Kay, which was hard as Kay was easily the most popular girl at Saunders. Which brought Alisa to the next thing…

Turning her hips a bit she stuck out her rear end. _"Tiny…" _Her gaze stuck to her bottom, as if she was expecting it to double in size at any moment. Though that was stupid to hope for. She found herself looking down at the ground in defeat once more. Even if she decided not to compare herself to the commander, the only other girl that came to mind was the Vice-Commander, her friend.

Naomi, the tallest girl on the tankery team. _"Even she has a bigger chest then me…nicer legs…bigger butt…even prettier eyes…"_ Alisa looked at her reflection in the window one last time. Boring brown eyes stared back at her. Even her boring brown hair done up with two pigtails. It wasn't long and flowing like Kay's. While Kay's hair seemed to flow down her back like a golden waterfall, Alisa's just looked like someone threw a boring brown wig on her head…

"_No wonder he rejected me…"_ Alisa sighed. She even failed to finding something attractive about herself. It was hard not to compare herself to others as she was a part of biggest tankery team in the high school league, the most expensive one as well.

"_Kay's just a bombshell, and even Naomi's pretty enough to get a boyfriend,"_ Alisa thought, turning away from her reflection she continued on her way to the store. She shoved her hands back into her jacket as she walked, her eyes locked onto the ground.

Kay didn't have a boyfriend to Alisa's knowledge, but that was because she wasn't interested in anybody. She acted more like a big sister to everyone, always cheerful and smiling, finding the good in any situation, like when Alisa tried to win by cheating against the opposing school.

Exciting… _"That's what Kay said…even when I cost our team the win…"_ mumbled the girl. If she hadn't tried to cheat, then they could have attacked with all the power at her team's disposal. But even then, Kay was barely even angry, more disappointed than anything else, which stung even more.

"_Naomi wasn't even angry, she enjoyed the match almost as much at Kay."_ Naomi hadn't even scolded her fellow commander; she just smiled, calling it a close match, and went about her day. But Alisa felt like a failure. She wasn't upset that she had cheated, she was angrier that she was found out. And that she didn't figure out Ooarai was using her own tactics against her…

But she didn't hate the school, no quite the opposite. She respected them for winning the whole tournament, even going on to beat a University team hand-picked by the Tankery Federation. Of course, that would have been hopeless without Alisa and her fellow commanders rushing to Ooarai's aid, saving their tanks and their butts in the match.

"_Though…I went down before I could even manage to show what I'm made of…"_ Alisa came to a stop once again; her shoulders began to shake in anger. It was true, she had gotten knocked out in one shot by the University Team, along with the rest of her team, in the matter of seconds…

"_Is that my fault too?"_ she wondered aloud. In her mind, it was no wonder no guy wanted her. Takashi wasn't the only one to reject her, after all; another guy had turned her down earlier that day. Another reason she wanted the day to just end but no, here she was wandering around aimlessly. Well, not aimlessly, but she felt lost deep down, with no boyfriend, no real charm to her name. She couldn't even win at a stupid children's game.

"_How am I supposed to take over the team when Kay graduates?"_ the lonely girl asked nobody in particular, sighing once again as she continued on her path. Thankfully, the local Sunkus corner store was near the school, so she didn't need to go far, though with her heels dragging it would take forever, and knowing her teammates she'd never hear the end of it. And she wasn't in any mood to hear about it from them.

Taking a deep breath to steady her emotions and pulling her hands from her pockets, she took off at a brisk jog. If she picked up the pace, she'd be able to make up for wallowing in self-pity. But even though she was going faster, her own doubts still nagged at the back of her mind…

Thankfully, the young Vice Commander didn't need to worry much longer. She reached the block that held the little corner store. Switching gears from a brisk jog to a fast-paced walk, she came to a stop in front of the store. Big, bright red and yellow neon lettering proclaimed '_Sunkus 24 Stop'_ above the doors. The "K" in "Sunkus" was strangely shaped, like a cartoon character, since the lower part of the K wore cowboy boots, while the top part of it wore a baseball cap. It almost looked like a stick figure.

Now her doubts switched to remembering what she was there for. She reached into her skirt pocket and produced a list. As she distracted herself with the list, she stepped onto the pad outside the doors, which opened for her automatically. The "Ding" overhead sounded, alerting whoever was working that night that they had a customer. It didn't even take a second after the bell sounded for someone to call to her.

"_Welcome to Sunkus! If you need anything just ask away!"_ a strange sounding voice said, though Alisa didn't really pay any attention to it as she grabbed a basket by the front door. _"Yeah sure,"_ she muttered. Her brown irises scanned the list a few times as she looped one arm under the handles of the basket so she had a free hand.

"_Vanilla cola, cherry cola, chocolate milk…"_ Luckily for her, she didn't need much as she was only buying drinks and snacks for her tank crew. If she needed to buy drinks and snacks for the whole team, she'd be bankrupt by the end of the night.

Making her way to the back of the small store, she passed by the aisle where the employee who had greeted her stood, not even taking the time to glance in their general direction. Though she could faintly make out a male voice since they were singing softly to themselves.

"_Woman I love laying in my bed, and it's alr-" _The voice slowly drifted away as Alisa made it to the refrigerated back wall of the store. Once again, the voice was out of earshot. She frowned. _"Lucky them,"_ she mocked, unaware the male voice was just singing.

Still in a huff, she jerked the first door she saw open with a little more force than was necessary. The door swung open with no resistance. It caught her off guard as it nearly smacked her in the face. She backed up quickly, and the door flew past her. It came to a stop as its hinge locked, though in the emptyish store the pop it made seemed to almost echo.

"_Everything a'right ma'am?"_ the strange male voice called out, sounding concerned. Alisa could hear the worker had stopped stocking the shelves. A small blush started to form on her cheeks. Was she stronger than she thought? She hadn't meant to nearly rip the door off!

"_A-Ah yeah the door just opened so easily it caught me off guard!"_ she stammered. The voice answered promptly. _"Ah, I apologize for that. I oiled them a few hours ago since it had been awhile, be careful they'll all be like that!"_ he shouted. Alisa's blush quickly faded away as she realized it wasn't her fault she nearly broke the door.

"_Stupid…Huh? What kind of convenience store clerk oils the door themselves? Isn't that like a maintenance job or something?"_ she wondered to herself. Her eyes moved from the door she had just opened to the direction of the voice. The worker had gone back to working the shelves—not that she could see him, since she was shorter than the shelves. But she could hear him moving items around.

"_At least he isn't coming over." _Thankful, she turned her attention back to the open refrigerator. She had opened the first one she saw. It was the milk section, so she grabbed a plastic jug of chocolate milk. Dropping it into her empty basket, she moved out of the way of the door and bumped it with her hip making it swing shut.

Walking past a few doors, she found the soda section, this time being careful not to rip the door off as she opened it. Stepping in front of it so it wouldn't close on her, she scanned the glass bottles until she found the vanilla-flavored soda. She grabbed it and carefully placed it beside the milk. Now she only needed cherry flavor and original for herself.

Original was the next one she found; it joined the other drinks in her basket. But when she searched for the cherry flavor, it was gone; both slots were empty. _"Of course…that's just my luck…"_ Getting onto her knees, she peered through the hole in the wall of sodas into the backroom behind the fridges. A smile formed on her lips, as she could make out several stacks of cherry flavored colas in the back.

"_Hey!"_ she called out, pushing herself to a standing position. _"I need a Cherry Cola but the shelf is empty!"_ she added. She heard the man stop working. _"Apologies ma'am, we got our delivery this morning. Just haven't gotten a chance to stock the cold section yet! Hang on."_ She could hear the man making his way out of aisle he was currently working. He entered the back room through a door she couldn't see. It clicked shut behind him

Deciding to continue her shopping, she closed the refrigerator door and made her way to the chip aisle, which thankfully was fully stocked, so she wouldn't have to bother the guy again and wait even longer. She initially grabbed a bag a salt and vinegar chips and looked the bag over with a disgusted expression on her face.

"_I don't understand how Yui can eat these things, they taste horrible."_ Alisa complained as she dropped the bag into the basket. Next, she grabbed some canned chips that had a mustache cartoon faced character on the front of the container. Sour cream and onion: a somewhat normal flavor in Alisa's opinion. It joined the small pile of items in the basket.

She then made her way around to the next aisle, which held a large selection of candy. She knew exactly what she needed from there. She grabbed a large bag of chocolate for herself, knowing with her day being as it was she'd definitely need them later on. It took up the last of the free space in the basket with its sheer size, making the basket heavy enough that she struggled to carry it.

"_Just waiting on the cola."_ As she said this, the door leading to the back slid open slowly. From where Alisa stood she could see the worker's back. He wore a red and yellow striped "Sunkus" baseball cap backwards, with a matching short sleeve polo shirt. Though she couldn't see his face, she could make out shaggy chestnut brown hair peeking out from the sides of the hat.

Her eyes slowly trailed down his back to his lower half, stone washed blue jeans with a pair of grey sneakers. But what really caught her attention about the man wasn't the nice fitted jeans, or how they seemed to hug his rear end…it was what she saw next…

Slipping free from the door, the man was carrying 4 boxes of soda—cherry, orange, vanilla, original cola—all stacked on top of each other, which blocked her view of his face. Her eyes widened in amazement, as she could make out the label on one of the boxes reading '30 lbs' which meant he was casually carrying 120 pounds. That whole stack weighed more than she did!

He didn't seem to notice her as he walked past her aisle going to the refrigerators. She quickly followed after peeking around the end of aisle so that she was facing him. Though the boxes still blocked her line of sight, he turned into the final aisle with the fridges and made his way to the door where she complained about it being empty.

"_Apologize for that again, ma'am, hope I'm not keeping you from wherever you need to be."_ His strange accent was now more obvious to her as she was fully focused on him. She didn't answer him, as her eyes were locked on the boxes that blocked his face. He knelt down, setting the 4 boxes on the floor (carefully, as they all held glass bottles). He released the sides, which made a small clanging sound.

"_He's got to be a body builder!"_ she thought. Her eyes widened in even more surprise as he stood up. A huge blush spread across her face as she took in his features. What she first noticed were his eyes. They were an attractive shade of copper. He was clean shaven as well. His features didn't indicate he was Japanese; he looked like an actual American.

"_Cherry, you said, right, ma'am?"_ he asked as he grasped the top box. His thumbs got between the cardboard lid as he ripped it open effortlessly. Reaching in, he pulled out a single bottle of cherry cola and offered it to the stunned girl. He smiled at her.

His smile was incredible, charming, roguish…no, there wasn't any words for it, at least not anywhere in Alisa's brain. It was similar to the type of scene she'd see in romance movies, the type of smile that would make any girl's heart skip a beat. And in this case, it made hers skip a beat as her basket of items crashed to the floor…


	2. Chapter 2: The Warmth of a Smile

**Notes from me: Hello everyone once again like to thank Fifi and Crabby the weird twins of Reddit for proofreading my work. I am changing somethings up normally I put the speech and thoughts into italic but I decided to change that to just thought so I don't need to really add the whole he/she thought but speech will remain normal only thoughts will be in italic from now on. I hope you all enjoy this next chapter of 'A Cowboy's Wildfire'**

**A Cowboy's Wildfire**

**Chapter 2: The Warmth of a Smile**

"**Cherry, you said, right, ma'am?"**

Those words seemed to echo in the young girl's mind as her items lay sprawled out on the floor of the store. The young man before her quickly put the single bottle of cherry soda back in the box before getting on one knee before her. He quickly placed all the items back in the basket in a neat pile like he had been doing it for years.

As he finished, he placed his free hand on his knee, and with little effort, he pushed himself up. It was then that Alisa realized how small she was compared to him; he was easily a foot taller than she was, as her head came up only to his chest. It was slightly intimidating—at least, it should have been, except his smile never left his handsome face.

"Ma'am, you dropped your things." he said in his strange accent, carefully holding the basket full of items out for her as if worried she'd drop them again. Alisa's brown eyes couldn't leave his copper ones as she gingerly reached out for the basket with both hands.

Her fingertips slowly grasped the edges of the basket. Pulling it to her small chest, she cradled the basket as if it were alive, her eyes still locked with his. She wanted to thank him, but nothing came out of her mouth as she opened her lips. She almost looked like a fish gasping for air as her lips moved but made no sound.

"Ma'am, you okay?" he asked, sounding legitimately concern for the girl. His concerned tone brought some sound finally, but the only thing that came out of the small commander's mouth was a nervous stutter of "A-Ahhhhhh." which brought a small blush across her freckled features.

"Ahhhhhh?" he mimicked. Normally, it would have pissed off Alisa to have someone else making fun of her, but she couldn't even get angry at this man. Something about him was just soothing like a warm shower after a long day; that smile had an almost unnatural warmth to it.

"Ah, right, cherry," the young man said. This snapped Alisa out of her daydreaming as he broke eye contact, turning away from her. With his back to the girl, he once again reached into a box of cherry soda and pulled a single bottle out.

"Ah, right…cherry…" she whispered nervously. It was barely audible, but the man seemed to hear her as he turned to face her. His warm smile was gone, replaced with a smirk, a rather cocky/sexy smirk that caused the girl before him to loosen her grip on the basket.

As it began to once again slip free of Alisa's grasp, the young man reached out. His hand slid right under the basket, catching it in place. His other hand carefully dropped the cherry coke right in with her other items as he held the basket for her. His eyes switched from a cocky appearance to a half-lidded look, an almost knowing look, as if he knew she'd drop her things again. But this look only made the girl blush even deeper; it made him look even sexier!

'_Oh, COME ON!'_ her brain screamed as she grasped the basket once again, hard this time, as she ripped it away from his hand. His cocky/sexy smirk vanished, returning to that genuine smile that had caused her to drop her items to begin with but she wasn't going to falter this time.

'_He thinks this is some sort of game. Well, buster, I'm not…not_…' Alisa's brain once again came to a halt as the young man pulled his Sunkus cap off, as it was still backwards. The cap released his shaggy chestnut colored hair, which flowed freely now, coming down to just above his shoulders. His hair resembled a famous American actor Alisa had seen in a movie once—what was his name? —Owen Wilson.

'_How the hell does he fit all that hair in there?!'_ She wondered. He carefully ran his hand through his shaggy hair, making sure it was slicked back. Holding it there for a moment, he slipped the cap back on, effectively hiding his once long hair again.

After a few adjustments, his hat was back in its normal position, facing forward. As he released the hat, he turned his attention once again to the boxes of soda that remained on the floor. He got to work, taking several bottles out at once and putting them in the fridge, filling up the empty or almost empty slots.

Alisa watched him work quickly as he filled up the cherry slot in a matter of seconds. It was rather impressive, she thought. Like he was a machine working the line, efficient and fast. It didn't take long for the first box to be empty, at which point he grasped the sides with his fingers, spinning the box in his grasp so the open side was now facing down. He poked his fingers into the small slit opening. Grasping it he used his free hand to hit the opposite lid he wasn't holding. It broke effortlessly, and a second later he broke the other lid open, folded the box up and placed it in a free space on the floor.

He was about to do same with the others until he noticed Alisa was still standing there, watching him work. He paused to look at her with his kind smile, and it was only now she realized she was staring at the strange man before her.

"Ma'am, was there something else you needed?" he asked kindly, keeping that smile the whole time. She looked away from that smiling, stupid, handsome face. "N-No, I mean yes! I'd like to check yo—MY stuff out!" She quickly corrected herself. The blush that was once fading from her freckled cheeks was once again threatening to take over.

"Ah, sorry, ma'am," he replied. Turning away from the stack of boxes, he closed the door to the fridge. He then went to squeeze by her to get to the front of the store, but Alisa just stood there. Keeping her blushing face pointed at the floor, she could see the large shadow he was casting over her thanks to the overhead lights.

"Ma'am?" the slightly concerned employee asked. He was a little confused as to why the girl before him was just frozen in place. Had he said something to offend her? Did his earlier teasing actually upset her? He didn't mean anything by it, he was just trying to lighten the mood since he could easily sense her nervousness. It was pretty much written all over her face, though this wasn't the first time someone had been caught off guard by his presence.

'_Most the gals onboard never met an American before'_ he thought, '_But normally a smile can get them to relax…but this little lady…'_ Alisa seemed way more on edge than anyone else he had met since he came aboard almost half a year ago.

'_What should I... AH!'_ An idea came to the young man. He backed away a bit from the girl. Alisa jumped a bit in surprise from his shadow uncovering her. She finally looked up a bit, but only enough to see him take his hat off. His Owen Wilson shaggy hair came free from its prison as he took a bow, his hat crossing over his heart as he took an almost comical pose.

"Name's Elias, Ma'am. Sunkus's lowly nighttime employee from America. Montana to be precise," the young man said. His shaggy hair fell down a bit to cover his eyes as he bowed low before the girl. His hand didn't stick out behind him, making his pose look goofier, like a performer on stage.

"Here to serve," he said in an almost musical tone. He tried to peek at her through his hair, but when that failed, he blew some air at it, parting his hair away from his eyes. As his vision cleared, he gave her that smile, that damn heart-skipping smile.

"A-Alisa…" she replied. Her nervousness wasn't nearly as obvious as before, though he could still hear it in her voice. But that wasn't what caught his attention; it was her name.

"Alisa?...the tankery commander?" He asked, sounding unsure. This surprised the freckled girl a bit. He actually recognized her? She gave a small nod, her blush now vanishing as a surprised expression formed on her features.

"You're Sunny's friend!" He snapped his fingers using his free hand. The same hand brushed his hair back as he slipped his hat back on. He had finally gotten her to relax it seemed, which turned his gentle smile into a cocky smirk again. He felt a little proud of that, though he noticed the surprised face changed to one of confusion.

"Sunny?" He face palmed himself a little inside feeling a little stupid; of course she wouldn't recognize that name. "Ah, apologies, Miss. Kay is Sunny." The surprised expression immediately changed to an annoyed one as Alisa looked down at the ground once more.

'_Of course…he only knows me from Kay…it's always her._' Alisa sighed a little. Those ugly insecurities were once again rearing their ugly head. It was always the pretty ones they recognized; after all, guys notice how much prettier girls are when they are next to their ugly boring friends…

"Yeah, you and Sunny kicked some major as-" He cut himself off. He wasn't supposed to cuss in front of a customer. Clearing his throat, he continued. "Y'all did so well against the University team. It was impressive to watch!" Alisa was only half-listening to his praise. She was pretty sure he was just trying to be polite…

"Thanks…" she replied halfheartedly. She moved aside for him to finally get past her as he made his way to the register. Alisa followed close behind him. She placed her basket on the counter. Slowly, she placed each item on the counter. As he started to scan Alisa's items quickly, her mind once again began to wander to her earlier crisis…

'_More like Kay and Naomi were amazing; I was just all talk…_' That's right, she challenged the three commanders of the University in a moment of arrogance, in the heat of the moment.

She felt invincible, untouchable thanks to Anzio's amazingly detailed intel that had managed to turn the tables on the University team completely. They had managed to wipe out almost all the competition; Naomi had even helped Saint Gloriana take out the T28 that was tearing through the amusement park.

'_And Kay…'_ When the assault force had ambushed Alisa's convoy she had immediately started to panic, while Kay managed to reroute the convoy to rejoin the main forces.

'_It was some sort of miracle I wasn't taken out right there and then…' _It truly was some act of God that helped her little Sherman manage to withstand 12 direct hits on the hull. Which shouldn't have happened, really; after all, that same tank was wiped out in the match against Ooarai with just one shot.

'_Maybe that's why I got so cocky…because I felt like I was trying to prove myself to Takashi…prove I was worthwhile then that damn bimbo he's with now. But no…no, I got my ass handed to me!_ ' She scowled at herself; that same doubt from before was rearing its terrible head again. It forced her to close her eyes in frustration.

'_You're worthless'_ some part of her brain said. '_Pathetic.'_ No guy would want some flat-chested loser who couldn't even manage to take out one tank without being rescued by her fellow commanders. No one would want some loser like her leading Saunders after Kay graduated, she'd simply be thrown aside like garbage…like some worthl-

"You were amazing!"

That strange accent said. Alisa's eyes snapped open as her brown irises met with a pair of copper eyes. That smile from before, the same smile that made her heart skip a beat, made her drop her things. There was a new look on this young man's face as he smiled at her, not exactly gentle but almost proud.

"The way you charged in…did you know there were mics built into your tanks?" he asked as he bagged her last items. He carefully lifted the bag, putting it into a second one to reinforce it so it was less likely to tear open. He then turned his attention back to the startled-looking girl.

"You want some?!" He quoted from her commentary during the match. It brought a small blush to the girl's freckled face. It sounded so corny, she admitted to herself; she had wanted to sound like a badass but instead sounded like a fool…but…

"But I got wiped out," she admitted. Elias simply smirked at her, keeping that proud look on his face. "Who cares? Granddaddy once told me there is no better way to go out then with your boots on!" He claimed seeming almost proud of his own words, while the girl before him looked confused as hell.

"What the hell does that even mean?!" she wondered aloud, only to smack her own hands over her mouth in embarrassment. She hadn't meant to scream that out. But instead of looking offended, the young man smiled even more proudly.

"Means going out with a fight, and did you ever." The blush of embarrassment that once was from her own stupidity changed to one of amazement. He actually admired her…not Naomi…not Kay…but her. And he did so with the sincerest smile she'd ever seen.

'_His smile_…' That warmth she had felt before was returning, not the burning heat of her cheeks from his praise. No, it was a gentle warmth that seemed to fill her whole heart, making her bring her hand up to her chest grasping the fabric above her heart.

'_What…is this feeling?'_ She had never felt this way before. No guy ever made her feel this way, but she liked it…she liked his praise. Liked his charming smile, his strange accent, his handsome features…he was nothing like Takashi…he actually seemed to notice her. And it didn't feel like the normal customer service…it actually felt like it was for her…

'_Or is it all in my head?…_' She wondered. With a little smile, she gave a small bow of appreciation. Elias nodded in return to her, before finally pushing her items to her. He then pressed a few buttons on the register until a small ding was heard. The register opened up for him.

"That'll be $16.50, or 1788 yen please." Alisa nodded this time as she reached into her bomber jacket pocket, pulling out a small cute wallet with a Sherman tank design on the side. It was decorated with several hearts. Elias blinked a little, surprised by the cutesy wallet. It brought a small smile to his features…

Alisa pulled a 2000 yen note from her wallet and offered it to him. He gently took the note from her, as if worried he'd rip it by mistake. He placed it in the register, tapping a few buttons, and took a small sum of yen from the drawer. Flipping them over in his hand he quickly counted out the correct change before he offered it back to the girl.

"Here ya go!" he said cheerfully, all the while keeping that smile on his face. Alisa held her hand out, letting the coins fall into her palm. As soon as his hand was free of the coins, he took the printed receipt and placed it into her one of her bags. Alisa took her change, putting it into the cutesy wallet before shoving it back into her bomber jacket.

Before taking her bags, she looked at the young man, who bowed his head in thanks for the business. She was about to open her mouth to ask something until the back door that Elias had disappeared through earlier opened up slowly. Alisa wiped around to see a rather tired looking young man. He wore the same Sunkus shirt as Elias minus the hat.

"Ah, Daisuke, you're back from lunch already?" Elias asked. He sounded happy to see the young man; it meant his own break was coming up. Daisuke glanced from Elias to Alisa. immediately noticing the Saunders bomber jacket. He seemed a little surprised to see the girl. But he returned his attention to the American.

"Already? I left right when she entered." he said, pointing right at Alisa. Now it was her turn to be surprised. She quickly reached into her other pocket, ripping out her cellphone to check the time.

"7:00 PM?! I'VE BEEN HERE FOR ALMOST AN HOUR!?" she screamed in disbelief. Elias simply shrugged. "Time flies when you're having fun," he said casually with a knowing smile. Alisa didn't react to his words as she grabbed her things, making a break for the door. But she froze when the doors opened, not looking at him.

"Thank you…for what you…AH, NEVER MIND!" she groaned, too embarrassed to finish her sentence, grinding her bag-filled hands into her skull. "Please come again and tell Sun- Kay I said hi!" Elias called after her with a smile, and though he couldn't see her face, he took notice of her red ears.

"Yeah…goodnight," she mumbled before taking off into the night, leaving the two Sunkus employees alone. Elias propped his elbow on the counter, placing his head into his hand. He turned to Daisuke, who looked a little annoyed with Elias, the incessant smiler.

"So, she's amazing, huh?" The boy shoved his hands into his pockets before walking up to the counter. Elias smirked lightly. "Heard that, did you?" He didn't seem surprised by Daisuke's words, who leaned against the counter with his back to the American.

"You know I did. After all, the alarm tells you when someone comes in the back door." Elias faked a surprised expression before shrugging lightly. "I had no idea," he replied sarcastically before pushing himself off the counter to return to his other duties.

"I'm gonna finishing stocking the soda before I take my break." He made his way around the counter. As he was about to make it to the corner where the boxes of soda remained untouched, Daisuke called out to him.

"Ya know, it's impolite to lie to a girl." Elias paused turning his gaze to the boy. "Lie?" Daisuke nodded once. "Yeah, telling her she's amazing just to boost her morale, that isn't cool, man." The American gave a cocky smirk, surprising his coworker, before continuing to the soda shelves. His next words surprised Daisuke even more.

"I don't remember telling any lies."


	3. Update thanks to Covid 19

**Hello everyone Jester here. It's been a bit, and I have been very busy sadly... I started a new work and was planning to get out the next chapter of A Dead Arrow next then work on Son of Daniel but sadly... I dont have the time to write.**

**You see normally on my days off I reread my works get my mind back on track with where I left off cause I'm SUPPOSED to have 3 days off in a row. So I would use the first to reeducate myself on where I was. Then day 2 I'd start writing until I'm done or whenever I sleep, then day 3 I go over my errors have my fiance read it give me the go ahead and release it normally noonish or a little later.**

**And this whole deal worked well for me but... that was before Covid took the turn that it did work wanted me in 6 days a week and I work as a warehouse employee not the easiest job. Well anyway things were at a crawl for awhile with me getting home and just falling into bed for 6 days straight then finally getting a day off and just crashing. Well I switched to nights and was enjoying 3 days off a week which is how I got two chapters of my new story out so quickly. **

**I then took a break a small break from writing in general after some events in my life took over, then getting some major news that changes my life... ready? Ready? Well too bad lol I found out I'm going to be a father! :) Now this news was pushing me to try and get more chapters out faster as I dont know my schedule when a baby is involved (We figure around xmas will be the due date) so I was planning to get more chapters out.**

**Well work decided to hand me a fuck you and easy nights, 4 days a week working changed to 2 days off and now we just got the news of a possible second wave of Covid 19. Work is now in panic mode to where they are forcing me to work 6 days a week again. (sighs lightly) Meaning my free time is gone, while my new position isn't murder on me like my old one. It does suck up all my spare time during work days, so with what little time I have I wanted to update you all on what was going on. **

**Keep an eye out for future chapters cause once all this insanity chills the fuck out I will start work on a new chapter for each of my stories. A Dead Arrow (Highschool of the Dead) will be coming first, then Son of Daniel (Blue Exorcist), A Cowboy's Wildfire (Girls und Panzer), and finally A Locked Jewel (My Little Pony). I think then I will work to finishing my A Locked Jewel story before releasing more of the others as that story is the closest to being complete with there only being possibly 4-6 more chapters everything else still has a ways to go on each of them. A Dead Arrow will most likely be my longest running story as it follows the anime episodes but with more going on...**

**Anyway that's it, I'd like to thank some people who messaged me asking where I am and to the few on Reddit who follow me. You all make this insanity with Covid 19 so much more tolerable. I hope to all see you soon and hope you all are taking care of yourselves, remember don't panic with Covid it's not nearly as bad as everyone thinks! **

**Jester**


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